1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to exercising apparatus for developing the human musculature and maintaining human physical fitness. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus which is highly versatile in the number and types of exercises which can be performed using it, which is fully portable, can be easily assembled and disassembled, and can be used safely.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been established beyond any serious argument that the human body should undergo a regular regimen of exercise in order to maintain a person's good physical and mental health and to afford proper muscular development. Disease of the cardiovascular system, for instance, poses a major health problem in the United States. Other health problems include those constituting a physical manifestation of conditions of mental stress such as frustration and worry incident to the strenuous pace of modern living. Another problem resides in the need to maintain a feeling and appearance of physical well-being. Physical exercise is often quite helpful in alleviating such problems. Exercise can maintain the human body trim and physically fit and can allow mental relaxation while a person is engaged in an enjoyable diversion which can provide an outlet for his frustrations.
In the not too distant past, rigorous physical exercise formed an inherent part of human life. The population of this country in particular was located largely in rural areas and the economy was predominantly agrarian. The farm work associated with earning a livelihood provided more than enough exercise and the life style was significantly more relaxed than under present circumstances. The urban population was quite centralized and most people could walk to work. Furthermore, once at work most people were engaged in largely stress free physical tasks which provided adequate exercise for general physical fitness.
With the advent of industrialization and automation, life has become increasingly sedentary. The rural segment of the population now constitutes only a fraction of the total and even farming activities have become highly mechanized. Urban centers have become quite large and people must now commute to work. Once at work, the activity in which they engage has become significantly more stressful and at the same time less physical. Furthermore, due to the more hectic pace of modern life and the fact that people must now commute to work, significantly less time is available for any extra physical exercise.
Nonetheless, in recognition of problems caused by a lack of physical exercise, many people have attempted self imposed regimens of physical exercise. These persons are often confronted with the problem that they lack the facilities or personnel to develop a satisfactory program of exercise. For instance, the absence of any suitable open and safe areas may render jogging impractical. Jogging may also be undesirable since it constitutes a relatively specialized activity. Swimming may be impractical because of its seasonal character in many parts of the United States and because of the need for a pool. Other activities such as team sports, of course, require a number of individuals. It may be impractical to convene such a group in light of busy and often conflicting schedules. Even activities such as tennis, squash, racket ball, or handball require at least one other person to provide a satisfactory regimen of exercise.
The problems suggested above have led some individuals to a regimen of exercise comprised of weight lifting.
Many weight lifting exercise machines have been developed and patented over the years. The goal of most of these machines is to provide safe and convenient exercise during which weights, which are either remotely located and operated by cables and pulleys or mounted locally as on a weight bar, are lifting against the force of gravity. These machines, with few exceptions, comprise a captive weight, or a weight that is supported in the machine in a manner that the user need exert a force only in a generally upward direction to perform the required exercise.
As a result, balance and coordination of effort by various muscles involved in the lifting process are not necessarily used when using such apparatus. Many weight lifters and bodybuilders are therefore returning to what is called "free-bar" exercises after having used such equipment. "Free-bar" exercises are those wherein the control and balancing of the weight is the total responsibility of the user. They have found that the exercise machines available to them are suitable for exercising the large muscles of the body but, because they do not require the user to control the weight in terms of balancing it, these machines fail to provide proper exercise for the finer muscles that are so important in balancing. One can readily imagine an athlete who has been trained exclusively on weight training machines having captive weights and who is therefore fully capable of lifting a weight, but is incapable of controlling the weight once it is lifted.
The weight lifting exercise known as the bench press requires a weight lifter to lie in a substantially supine position on a bench under a weight bar that carries a preselected amount of weight evenly distributed on the ends of the bar.
It should be understood that in most cases the bench is horizontal, although in some cases the bench or a part thereof may be inclined, usually with the user's head higher than his torso; in either case, the user's position is considered to be supine, by which reference both the horizontal and the inclined orientations are embraced. The weight bar is then lifted off the rack (attached to the bench at nearly the full extension of the user's arms) and brought down to the user's chest. The exercise then comprises lifting the weight from the chest to the full extension of the arms and returning it to the chest, and then repeating this procedure for an appropriate number of times.
At the completion of a period of exercising, the user must again lift the weight bar to the full extension of his arms to return the weight bar to the rack. Obviously, when the user is fatigued, as is often the case when the user has forced himself to perform more repetitions than he felt was his capacity, which technique is commonly called "overloading," the return of the weight bar to the rack is difficult or even dangerous.
Although weight lifters and bodybuilders know that safety should be of primary concern and that a second person should be ready to help or to remove the weight bar when such help is needed, the pressures of time and the availability of equipment for exercising lead them to ignore this important safeguard. Even when the safeguard is observed, injury can occur if the second person, the "spotter," takes inappropriate or unexpected action in his efforts to provided help to the exerciser.
Recent developments in the art of bodybuilding teach that greater effectiveness is obtained by exercising in the so-called "eccentric contraction" mode. To adherents of the eccentric contraction method, lifting the weight bar against the pull of gravity is considered less effective in building or developing muscle tissue than is lowering the weight from the initial full extension to the contracted position wherein, for the bench press, the weight bar is near the chest.
The adherents of the eccentric contraction mode would prefer to have aid from a source other than the muscle group being exercised to lift the weight; they then exercise the desired muscle group primarily during the slow lowering of the weight bar. When a spotter is used to accomplish this mode of exercise, the transfer of the weight bar from the user to the spotter and back again while it is always positioned above the user's reclining body, carries obvious hazards with respect to timing and coordination of the efforts of the two people to prevent the heavily-weighted bar from being dropped, causing serious injury to the user.
From the standpoint of time utilization, it would be desirable to have equipment that would make the bench press exercises described herein suitable to be performed by a solitary user without a spotter, even for the adherents of eccentric contraction or users of forced repetitions, while at the same time improving the safety of the exercise.
Typical of the prior art are the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,598,908 to Morgan and 4,382,596 to Silberman which disclose versatile exercising apparatus which enables a user to perform a wide variety of weight training exercises. An exercise bar is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,198 to Jones which includes a pair of independent shafts which extend transversely thereof. Various sized weights can be supported on independent shafts and a pair of freely rotatable hand grips are positioned on the bar between the independent shafts. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,640,529 and 3,524,644, both to Kane, exercising apparatus for bar-bell type exercises provides assistance or resistance to the user, as desired. Another patent which discloses exercising apparatus providing either assistance or resistance to a user is U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,914 to Bushnell. In this instance, the apparatus comprises a frame and an elastic elongate member attached at opposite ends to the frame. The elastic member assists the user when it is downwardly deflected by the user's body and resists the user when it is upwardly deflected by the user's body.